Come to Your Senses: Art to See, Smell, Hear, Taste, and Touch

Come to Your Senses begins with the paintings of local children, serving as inspiration for the creation of new works by 46 adult professional artists.

9 STUDENT VISUAL ARTISTS

Organized in collaboration with Sally Taylor, founder of the non-profit Consenses, artists were asked to respond to one another’s artwork and express it in their own mediums in the vein of a game of “Telephone.”

Carter LaCasse Brayton Elementary School, North Adams, MA

The word “consensus” is defined as likeminded groups agreeing on a viewpoint, feeling, thought, or belief; Taylor’s “consenses” builds on this by celebrating the distinctive perspectives of individuals while encouraging connectivity through empathy, optimism, and courage (the three themes around which the previous three exhibitons at Kidspace were organized).

The exhibition aims to expand the traditional problem-solving technique by activating all five human senses: sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. Sensory art in a diversity of mediums—including painting and photography, dance, music, and even brownies, tea, and perfume!—provides

an opportunity to consider our daily experiences from a multiplicity of points of view. Each chain of art was initially triggered from a work of art by a local student that focused on the child’s feelings of joy and fear. This aspect of the exhibition speaks to the current youth movement in which young people are finding ways to articulate their concerns about societal problems that have confounded adults.

This is the final installment of Kidspace’s Art 4 Change, a four-year project engaging children with art in ways that promote empathy, optimism, and courage with the ultimate goal of becoming more self-aware, confident, and participatory in problemsolving and social change.

Mikyra Burnell Gabriel Abbott Memorial School, Florida, MA Aidan Crofts Clarksburg Elementary School, Clarksburg, MA Christopher Eichorn Colegrove Park Elementary School, North Adams, MA Gisella Hildabrand Greylock Elementary School, North Adams, MA

Kendall Martin Clarksburg Elementary School, Clarksburg, MA Kaitlyn Mongeon Colegrove Park Elementary School, North Adams, MA Mike Parkman Emma L. Miller Elementary School, Savoy, MA Ozzie Weber Greylock Elementary School, North Adams, MA

12 MUSICIANS

3 PHOTOGRAPHERS

3 ANIMATORS

Natasha Bedingfield & David Saw

Jamie Diamond

Karni Arieli & Saul Freed

Naima Green

Erick Oh

Cobus du Toit

Laura Hendricks

Sophie Hiller Susanna Hoffs & Chris Price Josh & Seth Larson Carly Simon Chris Stills

5 SET DESIGNERS 3 PAINTERS

Dahlia Al-Habieli

Heather Day

Brynna Bloomfield

Meghan Hildebrand

Janie Howland

Susan Swartz

Cristina Todesco Jenny Wright

Patrick Sutton James Taylor

3 PERFUMERS Felix Buccellato

7 DANCERS

Patricia Choux

Cirio Collective (Jeff Cirio, Brooke Naylor, and Whitney Jensen)

Jim Krivda

Alison Manning & Jesse Keller

Kim Klopstock

2 TEA/FOOD Heidi Schmidt

Trey McIntyre Andile Ndlovu

2 SCULPTORS Anthony Howe

6 POETS

Andrew Myers

Justen Ahren Fran Ogilvie Elise Paschen Rose Styron Ben Taylor Terry Tempest Williams

—Laura Thompson, Ed.D., Director of Education & Curator of Kidspace MASS MoCA

55 ARTISTS

Consenses is like an artistic game of “Telephone” in which a painting inspires a song, the song inspires a dance, the dance inspires a poem, the poem inspires a photograph, the photograph inspires a perfume, the perfume inspires a sculpture, and so on until all five senses are fully engaged.

In March 2017, I worked with 30 fifth graders from the North Adams and North Berkshires schools and asked them to paint the essence of “joy.” But what IS the essence of joy? Well, there’s really no right or wrong answer. Try filling yourself up with joy right now and ask yourself the following questions:

What would the spirit of joy be if it were a color?

Yellow like the sun?

Green like grass on a summer afternoon?

What would joy taste like if it had a flavor?

Popcorn? Jelly beans?

What if joy were a texture or material? Would “joy” feel like feathers falling from the sky?

Or like riding your bike full speed downhill?

These are some of the very same questions these students asked themselves before picking up a paintbrush and painting their version of joy. All of their paintings were different because we all experience the world differently. Some students painted with yellows and pinks, others with greens and blues. Some students used big fearless

brushstrokes to represent joy, while others painted careful delicate lines and swirls like whispers on the page.

Next, the same students were asked to paint the essence of “fear.” They again asked themselves the same questions to investigate their individual feelings. They asked themselves: “What would fear smell like? Feel like? Taste like?” The shapes for fear were sharp, the colors were dark, and the brushstrokes chaotic.

Out of this collection of artwork, Consenses chose six paintings to pass along to six professional musicians, never telling them that children painted them or that they were inspired by an emotion. Each musician was asked to interpret the designated piece by expressing its essence as a song.

We then took each song and passed it on to filmmakers, then poets, visual artists, dancers, perfumers, chefs, and sculptors.

Finally, each chain was interpreted by a set designer as a single collaborative piece.

Despite the artists’ lack of contact and knowledge about each other’s work, there seem to be common threads that run through each chain, proof that despite our seeming separateness, we are not alone.

Consenses believes we need ways to find stronger connections in this fragmented world, to understand one another and feel understood, without fear of judgement. This is the essence of Consenses: to promote tolerance, empathy, and understanding through the arts.

—Sally Taylor, Consenses founder

LOVE 1. PAINTING Ozzie Weber, Greylock Elementary, Monster gets a Date If joy were a color it would be yellow. It would be light. It would be a bright sunny day. I made a monster that finally got a date.

2. SONG Carly Simon, Tender Touch The painting’s essence was like the yellow sun trying to shine through mist on a London morning, the sound of a carnival in a distant town, weightlessness, a diary found under a mattress and diaphanous (delicate and translucent) lace. Initially the painting for me was about the sadness that comes from low self-esteem and hiding, but it became instead about trying to find the sun within.

6. PERFUME Jim Krivda “Dewy Mimosa” The painting felt like the essence of bright sunshine. To me it was a field of grass and wildflowers in the spring. It felt so cheery. Instantaneously, I thought of dewy, green, cassie-french mimosa flower found in the spring.

7. SET DESIGN Cristina Todesco All the art as a collection made me think of playfulness and the exuberance I felt as a girl. I recalled the kind of play that's adventurous and pure like riding my bike all over town for fun or playing in the ocean waves. I felt the chain’s essence could be best represented with the color yellow, the taste of honey, sunny days, sand, water, and spring grass.

3. DANCE Alison Manning & Jesse Keller, Untitled The song felt like a warm fall breeze.

It felt light, like the colors yellow, orange, and red. It felt light and free, but also potentially melancholy.

4. POEM Rose Styron, Reach High If the dance were a color, it would be yellow or orange. The narrative it created was about an imagined or well-loved friend whose memories come to dance with you on a sunny morning.

5. PAINTING Susan Swartz, Spring Muse The poem felt windy & light. It reminded me of waking up to the morning light, and wind and raindrops against my skin. The peacefulness of self against the calm and wildness of nature. The poem expressed both the power of being alone, and the need for connection both to place and to each other.

JOY 1. PAINTING Christopher Eichorn, Colegrove Park Elementary, Untitled If "joy" were a flavor it would be cotton candy. It would be pink and light and smell like lemons on a sunny day. It would be confetti, balloons, night mist and starlight in the dark sky. My painting is a starry night with confetti over it. It gives me joy because it reminds me of bright colors in the world.

2. SONG Susanna Hoffs & Chris Price, Cannonball This painting felt filled with laughter, sun and humidity, children giggling, surf rolling in and out, the smell of citrus and the ocean, the sparkle of heat evaporating, the taste of strawberry fruit roll-ups and icecream dripping. Susanna: I saw uninhibited exuberance. Chris: I thought about summertime, being 9 years old and doing cannonballs into the community pool.

6. PERFUME Patricia Choux, Indigo Iris The painting was happy, uplifting, strong, and full of character but also soft and tender. If it were a weather, it would be sunny brightness just before the sunset. For the perfume, I used iris, a flower with personality, and infused some woody, spicy elements. I used carrot seeds also to translate the painting’s bright yellow/white.

7. SET DESIGN Brynna Bloomfield The sensation I got from all the art in this chain was "YAY!" I thought about "peekaboo" and the joy babies feel when you appear from behind your hands again and again. It as if they are seeing you for the first time, like an unexpected and unlikely surprise.

I wanted to recreate the experience of a joyful event.

3. ANIMATION Karni Arieli & Saul Freed of Sulkybunny, A love poem to our boy This song reminded us of summer. It was filled with love and happiness. The song was like a treasure box filled with childhood trinkets and magical things collected and coveted. It reminded us of pink lemonade spilled over Raspberry Pop Rocks.

4. POEM Ben Taylor, Untitled My poem is about me as an individual (represented by the boy in the film) talking to the part of me that has no individuality because it is not separate from the everything. The magical creatures on the shore felt like my guides, who are there to make sure I wasn’t afraid of being alone, and that if we were meant to find other beings (or God and me), we would.

5. PAINTING Heather Day, Sing If the poem were a color, it would be fuchsia.

If it were an emotion, it would be joy. It was pouring rain in San Francisco as I sat in my studio reading the poem. The poem felt so colorful, like a box of Crayola Crayons, so much more colorful than my usual work.

The words immediately evoked a sense of hopefulness in me.

SADNESS 1. PAINTING Kendall Martin, Clarksburg Elementary, Untitled If "fear" were a sound, it would be a high-pitched scream. It would be a thunderstorm and smell like rain and would be red, red everywhere. My painting is like a war story. In the background, there is smoke and blood from the bombs and killings. In the foreground, there is a woman crying.

2. SONG James Taylor, Bolthole The painting felt heavy, like a windy, overcast day. The black circle was an overwhelming psychic state of depression taking up more and more space, crowding out joy. But then I could also see it as an emerging strength and clarity coming out of confusion and chaos. I heard it musically as a low D. You feel this tone come at you, like that circular dark patch, and then the rest of the music is a vehicle to the background chaotic part of the painting where things are all falling apart.

3. DANCE Jeff Cirio, Brooke Naylor & Whitney Jensen of Cirio Collective, Untitled We thought the song felt like the essence of fear. The first movement the music inspired in us was a stretching action through our ribs and then a deep and intense contraction like being hit with an arrow.

4. POEM Fran Ogilvie, The Next Wound Will Leave a Scar The dance felt like the essence of the ocean and rain. For me it was about youths’ passage into the next stage of life and the inevitability that the journey will leave a scar. Old memories remain blurry and blunt like a dulled knife.

5. PHOTO Jamie Diamond, Untitled The poem reminded me of clouds before a storm. I was thinking a lot about families falling apart, in particular a turbulent relationship/ marriage in despair. In my photograph, I used a generic language of domesticity: wallpaper, stairs, pictures, objects, mementos. But then I disrupted the harmony and clarity of the space, broke down the beloved memories that a home showcases.

6. PERFUME Jim Krivda, Gris The photograph felt overcast but not too dark. It reminded me of my great aunt Irene’s house near Pittsburgh, PA, specifically the attic. The essential ingredient in my fragrance is ambergris, an oil that is produced from a whale so it smells like the ocean and animals.

8. SET DESIGN Janie Howland I had the feeling of being underwater, like there was a heaviness and darkness from above keeping me under. I also felt like there was a sense of reaching out for something. An emotional coming together and pulling apart like waves or like arms that can’t quite connect. Sadness is a heaviness that presses down on us.

7. SCULPTURE Andrew Myers, Coffee & Cream If the perfume were an emotion, it would be sadness. It instantly reminded me of my grandmother who is amazing but getting older, which makes me really sad to know she won't always be around. I created a bouquet of tulips wilting in a coffee pot with screws. The coffee pot represents me, a structural, harder person; the wilting tulips are my grandmother, who is soft, pretty but getting older.

COURAGE 1. PAINTING Aidan Crofts, Clarksburg Elementary, What Lurks in the Dark If "fear" were a color, it would be cold, black, darkness. It would be heavy and bitter and smell like smoke. This painting is of what lurks in the dark.

It reminds me of fear because the things that are in the dark are scary.

2. SONG Natasha Bedingfield & David Saw Untitled In this painting, I saw the night sky with people representing the stars. Starlight has to be brave to leave a star and go out into the cold dark space, never knowing if anyone ever will see it, let alone love and appreciate it. People, like starlight, are putting out into the world what is in our hearts, which takes a lot of courage because it may be received negatively.

We have to spread our light and have faith that our true selves will make it through the darkness; as I write in the chorus, “If we knew that we are only children all lovers searching...We’re all looking for someone....”

5. PAINTING Meghan Hildebrand, Untitled I choose to paint with early morning, forest colors that I felt matched the feeling of the poem. The arc shapes visually tie together different parts of the painting, and to me represent roads, bridges, mountains or rainbows. Although I tried not to be literal, the word ‘decay’ stuck with me, and I liked how the edges of the palette knife strokes decay in interesting ways, as well as the bleeding black.

6. PERFUME Felix Buccellato, Dilly Dilly The painting conjured for me the thought of lavender in big fields. The painting’s simple white background lays a foundation for more colorful and complex elements and feelings to be experienced. Similarly, my fragrance is layered in scents.

3. ANIMATION Erick Oh, Sound Design & Mixing Andrew Vernon How to Paint Your Rainbow When listening to the song, I had a flashback of each stage of my life, from birth to where I am now. I thought of what if there's a rainbow we see in the end of our life.

4. POEM Justen Ahren, Untitled In my poem, I attempted to capture not only the action in the animation but also the concept of the life cycle represented in the film. To seed the future requires our decay, our death, in order to forward time.

The animation did not strike me as sad, but rather expressing the gratitude that we might feel for being a small contributing part of human existence, truly a blessing to participate.

8. SET DESIGN Dahlia Al-Habieli The essence of this chain felt like the act of walking past a wall of fear to a place of discovery. The most delightful surprises are found in places we may fear to go.

My journey through this chain was through a child’s fear of the unknown, an adult’s fear that comes with knowing too much, acceptance, rebirth, and, eventually, peace.

7. SCULPTURE Anthony Howe, Of Inclining Wonders I smelled the fragrance, and spontaneously an image of what I wanted to make appeared in my head. It did not change or coalesce into something else at all. The resulting sculpture is a direct translation of my initial experience with the perfume.

FREEDOM

1. PAINTING Kaitlyn Mongeon, Colegrove Park Elementary, Untitled "Freedom" tastes like chocolate. It feels like silk and it's the sensation of running through a jungle. To me this painting is freedom because every line is different and everybody is different. We can be who we are.

4. POEM Elise Paschen, Tanka: Flight I was mesmerized by the exaltation of the dancers' movements and imagined how he might have fantasized about taking flight or going on a voyage. I imagined someone dreaming of flight but, ultimately, staying put. The movements of the dancer also reminded me of patterns or movements that starlings make in the sky.

6. BROWNIES Kim Klopstock of The Lilly & The Rose If the photo were a texture, it would be rocks, ice, silk. It would be hard yet light at the same time. It would be a perfect day: cold, crisp, yet warm and bright.

Invigorating! I wanted to create an intense experience that conveyed both hard and light. I used a raw sugar for grittiness, white chocolate for both the rock AND the cloud (hard and light) elements. I used a very dark cocoa powder to represent intensity and fleur de sel to acknowledge the natural and historic beauty of our mountains.

2. SONG Josh & Seth Larson of Something Underground, To Be Free This painting felt like a smile, like freedom, like having no boundaries. In it, I could hear sounds of the jungle. The black dots were about how sometimes we feel separate from one another, but the reality, when you pull back and look at the whole picture from afar, is that we’re all part of this beautiful interconnected tapestry of color. “Everybody is tangled up in such a beautiful way.”

3. DANCE Andile Ndlovu, Untitled The song felt like silk, like freedom. When I was dancing I said to myself: flow like water from one gesture to the next, be a river.

Keep moving though you might not know where you’re going. Have faith that you may break through your own limitations and find freedom. The message of my dance is "Find a way to be rooted and also free."

5. PHOTOGRAPH Laura Hendricks, See You There I interpreted the poem to mean that this life has more to offer than just our small perspectives/schedules, routines, etc. In my photograph, the sky represents the beautiful unknown. It's massive and a little bit daunting but in the end intriguing because of its changing nature. The sliver of earth reminds you that although your own personal world can feel big and all-encompassing, the reality is that you'll never be done growing, flying, exploring, learning.

FEAR

1. PAINTING Gisella Hildabrand, Greylock Elementary, Untitled "Fear" is sticky. It is large rocks. It is fire. It is the sound of thunder. It is the last petal falling.

My fear is of darkness and large spiders.

This painting is of something trying to escape from terror.

6. TEA Heidi Schmidt of Vineyard Sound Herbs' Tea House, Dry Roads Tea (with a bit of color) The photographer's hills screamed at me for burdock root. The sign/sculpture begged for berry-puckering, thirst-quenching Schisandra Berries. I added nettle, ashwagandha root and chrysanthemum flower which revs the engine in us, keeps us moving and motivated, and restores and replenishes us as we inevitably get depleted along life's long road.

I finished the blend with hibiscus to add a little color to our road.

5. PHOTOGRAPH Naima Green, Twentynine Palms Highway The poem was salty and reminded me of the smell of soil after a rainstorm. I couldn’t stop thinking about Joshua Tree, California, and how dry the desert terrain is there. What type of life grows and exists here? I love the quiet of the Twentynine Palms and knew this image would encapsulate the fraught terrain.

2. SONG Chris Stills, Rude Awakening In the painting, a spider has fallen off the side of a brick building onto the street. It finds itself in this completely unfamiliar world it’s not used to, filled with strange, unsympathetic creatures. It’s such a shock and a rude awakening. My song is about what it’s like to land in this world, so strange and unfamiliar to us all when we’re born. We have to grow up feeling the pain of vulnerability and insecurity and fear while strangers watch, or pass us by or threaten our very survival.

3. DANCE Trey McIntyre, Untitled This song for me represented the sensation of scorching, unrelenting heat, sweat dripping into your mouth. I thought of rocks, cement, and dry, parched earth. I chose to dance with the backdrop of a pool with no water and dry, arid rock, with the prop of a heavy chain to express vulnerability and the sensation of being out of one’s comfort zone. Listening to the song I kept thinking: "There is no escape.

It would feel so good to dive into a pool, but there is no water, nothing to hide under or in, so what do you have left?"

4. POEM Terry Tempest Williams, The Great Chain of Being When I first saw the man dressed in black dancing alongside a chain, I immediately thought of "The Great Chain of Being," a hierarchical structuring of the universe prominent in medieval Christianity which assigns animals and plants their “proper” place of importance in the context of living things. Lions are placed above warthogs which are above mice which are more important than a bird or a fish or a beetle or worm or snake, for example, who resides at the bottom of the animal ladder.

This hierarchy of power can be seen as a root cause of our current environmental crisis.

We are not the only species that lives and breathes on this planet, and yet we prioritize our needs over those of other species.

Kidspace is MASS MoCA’s child-centered art gallery and hands-on studio (ArtBar) presenting exhibitions and educational experiences in collaboration with leading artists. The ArtBar is available during the school year on weekends and school breaks, and is open every day in the summer.

Core education funding is provided by the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation.

Education at MASS MoCA is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Major education support is provided by George and Valerie Kennedy, MountainOne, John F. and Judith B. Remondi, Daniel and Samantha Becker, John DeRosa, the Ruth E. Proud Charitable Trust, Anne and Greg Avis, Linda Genereux and Timur Galen, the Milton and Dorothy Sarnoff Raymond Foundation, the Feigenbaum Foundation, Anders and Yukiko Schroeder, Holly Swett, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Principal support for Come to Your Senses at MASS MoCA is provided by Chrystina Geagan Parks and James R. Parks and ROAM: A Xtina Parks Gallery with generous contributing support from an anonymous donor, the Arthur I. and Susan Maier Fund, Guido's Fresh Marketplace, and Samantha and Daniel Becker.

Support for Sally Taylor's Consenses project is provided by Ellen Poss, Leslie Williams and James Attwood, Vickie Zoellner, Gordon and Rehanna Uehling, Esmeralda Swartz, Simone and David Levinson, Jim and Susan Swartz, Jane and Scott Maxwell, Geralyn Dreyfous, Laurie David, Monika Mclennan, Kay Kendall and Jack Davies, Gogo Inc., and James Lapine.

Additional education support is provided by the Mass Cultural Council, the Hemera Foundation, the Charles H. Hall Foundation, the Arthur I. and Susan Maier Fund, Scott and Lisa Stuart, Elizabeth Wadsworth and Paul Peppis, the Bessie Pappas Charitable Foundation, the Gateway Fund and the William and Margery Barrett Fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Duncan and Susan Brown, Patrick Sweeney, the Adelard A. Roy and Valeda Lea Roy Foundation, Sarah and Timothy Eustis, John and Anna Farrington, Will Frears, Chrystina Geagan Parks and James R. Parks, Amy B. Hudson, Adam Lippes, Daniel Mathieu and Thomas Potter, William Plapinger and Cassie Murray, Charlie and Amy Scharf, Jeffrey and Stacey Weber, Guido's Fresh Marketplace, and anonymous (2).

The Milton and Dorothy Sarnoff Raymond Foundation gives in memory of Sandy and Lynn Laitman.

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